New York-based pension fund manager TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund) has hired CB Richard Ellis Inc. (CBRE) brokers Tom Holtz and Steve Buss to market the property to a small group of potential buyers, according to sources who declined to be named to protect client relationships. There is no asking price.

The property is at 5500 Wayzata Blvd., near Xenia Avenue and Interstate 394.

Holtz declined to confirm the listing. A spokeswoman for TIAA-CREF declined to comment.

TIAA-CREF has been involved in The Colonnade since it was the original lender in 1988. It acquired the property in 1992 from developer Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co., which handed back the keys during a market slowdown.

The Colonnade would be the second suburban office property TIAA-CREF plans to sell in the western suburbs this year. In February, California-based KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II bought the 601 Tower at Carlson Center in Minnetonka for $54 million. CBRE handled that listing. The 288,000-square-foot 601 Tower also was built by Trammell Crow. At the time of the sale, it was 90 percent occupied with 43 tenants.

The Colonnade is 355,800 square feet, and has a higher occupancy rate, at about 92 percent, than 601 Tower. The Colonnade is anchored by the corporate headquarters of two publicly traded firms: Pentair Inc., which takes three floors of the 16-story tower, and Buffalo Wild Wings Inc., which leases two floors. The building has about 45 tenants.

Hennepin County’s assessed value of the 7.2-acre site, including the tower, parking ramp and excess land, is $44.02 million.

It isn’t clear if TIAA-CREF is planning to sell The Colonnade because it senses strong demand for well-leased corporate office buildings, or if it has more to do with TIAA-CREF’s own investment strategy.

TIAA-CREF is one of the biggest institutional investors in commercial real estate in the United States. In the Twin Cities, its only other property is the Normandale Lake Office Park in Bloomington.

TIAA-CREF has laid out a strategy to divest some of its Midwest holdings in favor of bigger and faster-growing markets, such as New York and Washington, D.C., according to sources familiar with the company.